5 Ideas for a "Wet Hot American Summer" Sequel

We're probably more likely to get another sequel to "Meatballs" in the future, but word has been spreading today that David Wain is interested in making either a sequel or prequel to "Wet Hot American Summer." The "State" and "Stella" vet shared some teasing tidbits on The Q&A With Jeff Goldsmith recently while discussing the cult comedy's 10th anniversary. It's probably meaningless, but here's what he has in mind, as transcribed by The Playlist:

Goldsmith: The idea I’ve heard tossed around is that it would be a prequel but when you shoot it they would be 20 years older.

Wain: Well, no that would be absurd. The prequel would be the same summer so they would be 20 years old for the part yeah, but not younger. So it would be 40 year olds playing 16 year olds. And yeah, we’re in the early stages of thinking about that.

I'm a huge fan of the original, but that not only sounds absurd but also kind of dull (and already a two-year-old pitch). Not that it would be with the ensemble back together (if risen stars like Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper and Amy Pohler would or could return), but there must be a more interesting way to go. The most obvious idea would be to revisit the characters 10 years later, not only since a decade has passed but also because the film ends with them all loosely planning a ten-year reunion. Yet even that sounds too generic (plus they show the reunion at the end).

There are ways to go that could keep with the original's spirit and be fresh and not suffer if any of the cast can't or won't return (I have a feeling Garofalo would not). Check out some quick pitches after the jump and add your own below.

1. Switch the setting to a ski resort - If there was anything hotter, or I guess cooler, in the '80s than summer camp movies, it was ski movies. No, that's probably not true, but I recall there being a number of teen comedies involving the winter sport, including "Hot Dog... The Movie,""Better Off Dead..." and, well, both "Ski School" (and its sequel) and "Ski Patrol" came a little late for the decade. Either disregard "Hot Tub Time Machine" for beating "Wet Cold American Winter" to the punch or see it as a trendsetter to get behind. Either way, I can easily see Coop, Andy and the others hitting the powder and the lodge. And just think of all the sweaters abound for Gene to fondle.

2. Set it in the fall - Instead of skipping to a winter setting, the logical next step would be to go with fall/autumn, since it's the next season. Then do winter, then spring. If it's good enough for Ozu to cover all quarters of the year, it's good enough for Wain and company. Of course, Ozu didn't exactly go chronologically with his films. But if we can accept that "WHAS" is set in "The End of Summer" (its date is August 18, so hardly), it makes perfect sense for the next film to cover "An Autumn Afternoon." Or to actually be a silly remake of that final film of the master Japanese filmmaker. Ozu could have used a few more fart noises and dick cream in his films anyway, am I right?

3. Spin-off just one character for a solo movie - As Collider reminds us, Christopher Meloni, who played sweater-fondling (or cheddar fondue-ing) Gene, is now done with his regular gig on "Law & Order: SVU." So how about a movie all about that Vietnam vet who in his summer months dishes up food to campers and sometimes talks to tin cans? Or, really, any of the other characters. We can assume none of the main group will see one another after the events of the first film, at least not until that ten-year reunion, so there's good reason a sequel would need to focus on only a single one of them. Then again, a prequel would also work. Let's find out just why Andy (Rudd) is such a bad boy. It worked for Darth Vader and Magneto.

4. Introduce an alien - Following in the footsteps of "Meatballs Part II," and in general because aliens are always marketable, a "WHAS" sequel needs a cute, friendly extra-terrestrial who's not even as cool as the thing from "Mac and Me" let alone "E.T," a la Meathead. Actually, now that I'm looking at images of Meathead I'm wondering if it was intentional for Wain to cast the alien's lookalike, Kevin Sussman. Either way, it'd probably be Sussman's character who finds the thing.

5. "Taco Meat Drips on Nipples 2" - It really doesn't matter what the plot of the sequel is with that title, which apparently was thrown out in a brainstorming meeting in the "WHAS" pre-production days. At least, this is one of the proposed original titles according to the following video:

Of course, none of these or Wain's own mentioned concept will ever actually happen since Universal is said to have no interest in the film. But we can keep dreaming.